Washington head coach Jan Harville
(on the varsity eight race)
"The crew said it wasn't pretty rough. It wasn't pretty. They won it on guts. It was outstanding."

(on trailing with 500 meters to go)
"I was wondering if we were too far down to make it up. I knew we had a great sprint, but I was worried we might be a little too far down. We started to move and it was half a length and then it was 250 to go and we were four seats, I was more encouraged. I thought with four seats, there was a good chance.

(on the varsity four setting the table with its win)
"When we won the four, I had a really good feeling. The second varsity has a great race and comes in second, I knew our preparation was good, we were all peaking well. We just needed to have a great race, to be in the hunt. There are great crews out there. You could have a great race and still somebody could beat you, just like our jayvees did. But I knew our team wasn't going to quit."

(What is it about Lake Lanier, winning here as you did in `98?)
"I don't know, but I'll come back here again. I'll come back here any time."

Nicole Rogers (two seat, varsity eight, senior)
"In the last 500, our coxswain, Mary Whipple, did an excellenct job. She said `let me take you guys home. Listen to me. It's going to get creative.' She just started calling us up. Everyone listens to her really well. We all just went together. Once we started moving, then we knew. She kept calling `believe, believe, believe' the whole time. When she called believe, we did and we just went.

"This is a great course. We had a great performance out there today. It's a really fair course.

"We practiced our sprints a lot this season, after USC beat us early in the season. We were very confident in our sprint. We've been doing a lot of work with our freshmen men's team. We practice our sprints with them. Once we had contact, we knew we could do it. We kept our heads and were able to pull it out.

Mary Whipple (coxswain, varsity eight)
"All season, after San Diego, we just kept talking about believing in each other, putting blinders on, focus on us, not on them. The middle 1,000, we were messy. It was pure determination, how we were getting up on Princeton because our catches were all over the place. I knew it was going to be work. With 750 to go, they came even up. Brown was 3/4 up and just stopped. I knew we had to go early and I knew the girls wanted to go early. We talked about it. We took the power 20 with about 650 or 700 to go. We were in the middle of our 20 crossing the 500, and we usually take a 20 at the 500. I told them to trust me, I'm taking them home. We're going to start early, so just listen up. It's going to be creative, but we're going to go. We just kept going up every couple strokes. In the last final beat, it was just go! And we did it.

"The whole middle shift I was yelling for them to believe. It was what they needed to hear. At the 750, Michigan was coming, Brown was up a length. I kind of had a panic attack, but that's when I decided we needed to go early. I knew the girls would want to do it and I knew our sprint was good.

"It's pure joy. And it's sad. I'll definitely miss the seniors in the boat. I'm glad they got to experience a national championship. They hadn't and I knew they needed to, to end their career."

Tegan Simonson (bow, varsity four)
"It was a strong race. I think it was our best race of the year. We got out front and kept getting further and further ahead. We weren't going to let them get back."

Maili Barber (coxswain, varsity four)
"Right after the start, I couldn't see anyone. I was totally scared because there was nobody around. Little did I know we had open water on everyone. I could hear them, but I couldn't hear them. It was a great race. They were together the whole way. It was the best race. They've only been dealing with me for a week. After one week, we pull this off? It's amazing. It was a race to every 500. Race to the 1,000, race to the sprint. We kept on winning our little races and that's how we got to the finish. I lost my voice in the last 500.

Carrie Stasiak (three seat, varsity eight)
"It was amazing. We've wanted this all year. I guess we've been the underdogs all year and we believed in ourselves. Going into our finish, we went a little early. We believed in Mary calling the race. We all did. You could feel it. I didn't exactly know where we were, but I knew we had to go. It just all came together."

Leslie Rattan (three seat, junior varsity eight)
"We had a great race today. We really wanted to get there. We've been working on our middle 1,000 and we committed to it today. We were happy, overall, with our performance. The last 500 was really exciting. Michigan was four or five seats up the whole. We walked through Brown in the last 500. It was exciting to be able to come back from our race Thursday, and not catching them, and be able to walk all the way through them today. It's very exciting.

"This is a great way to end four years of collegiate rowing, as a national champion. It feels so good. I'm so happy right now. I'm so proud of my teammates. We did everything we possibly could, to get here at the right time, in the right shape, completely ready to go."